Before the sun, glowing like a red-hot ball, had sunk beneath the horizon, the priest and I were the only ones in that company who could sit upright--the rest lay upon the bottom of the boat heaped one on another like dying fish groaning in their misery.

Night fell at last and brought us some relief from our sufferings, for the air grew cooler.

But the rain we prayed for did not fall, and so great was the heat that, when the sun rose again in a cloudless sky, we knew, if no help reached us, that it must be the last which we should see.
An hour after dawn another child died, and as we were in the act of casting the body into the sea, I looked up and saw a vessel far away, that seemed to be sailing in such fashion that she would pass within two miles of where we were.

Returning thanks to God for this most blessed sight, we took to the oars, for the wind was now so light that our clumsy sail would no longer draw us through the water, and rowed feebly so as to cut the path of the ship.

When we had laboured for more than an hour the wind fell altogether and the vessel lay becalmed at a distance of about three miles.